20 Feet from Stardom ****

A fascinating look behinds the scenes at the singers who back up the stars in our favorite songs, including iconic voices you never put a name to, "20 Feet from Stardom" sketches the lives of some of the great backup talents, plus interviews with the likes of Mick Jagger, Bruce Springsteen, Sting, Bette Midler, Luther Vandross and more. It's a massive undertaking and masterfully done.

By focusing on three singers, Merry Clayton, Darlene Love, and Lisa Fischer, director Morgan Neville shows us the lives behind the voices, the dreams and aspirations, or just contentment in a role that represent so many voices we all enjoy but may never have appreciated. And there are several aha moments. For me it was the story behind the soaring descant in "Gimme Shelter." You'll have one, too.

Les Misérables ****

Musicals with this much sung dialogue are exceedingly rare, and if you're not accustomed to opera or haven't seen Lay Miz before, it may take some time to adjust. Once into the rhythm, however, it's a richly rewarding experience. The performances, with the notable exception of Russell Crowe, are quite good, and some, like those of Hugh Jackman and Anne Hathaway, are award-worthy. Director Tom Hooper ("The King's Speech") had his cast sing and act at the same time for most of the movie, rather than lip synch after recording, and for me, it works. There's an immediacy to the action that miming cannot produce. I'm pleased to see such a lush and close-up version of musical theater with the occasional soaring camera high above the streets; it's very far from a filmed stage production.

This is 40 ***

An L.A. couple with two daughters reach their 40th birthdays and deal with the disappointments, struggles, and squabbles of life in their upper 5% world.  He's a struggling music distributor, she has a struggling women's wear shop, and their young adolescent and precocious pre-teen struggle with this American life. It has some fascination as a humorous look at life in a certain strata - that they both have fathers with young families is telling - but the drama lies in the fears, hidden resentments, silences that have been building up over the last 14 years. The pot is about to boil over.

The Guilt Trip **

An inventor (Seth Rogen) and his mom (Barbra Streisand), each concerned about the other being single, embark on a cross-country road trip where he hopes to sell his product to distributors. There's history here, and they both have quirks and secrets, which are revealed in due time. But it's a slight work that would have been more at home as a made-for-TV movie, or in a shorter format. Rogen and Streisand are fine, and the banter suits them both, but a fussy mom and a nerdy organic chemist make for a very sedate comedy.

Life of Pi 3D *****

Stunningly beautiful, exquisitely composed, with the most artistic use of 3D that I have every seen, "Life of Pi" is a philosophy lesson masquerading as an adventure story. Rife with spectacular disasters, both great and small, and largely spent on a lifeboat occupied by a young man and a Bengal tiger, it would seem to be a film that couldn't be made. But in the hands of Ang Lee and his CGI magicians, it's impossible to tell where live action ends and computer graphics begin, or where, for that matter, where reality ends and fiction begins.

And that's the point, in a way. Young Pi has always been a searcher, a believer in several religions and a devotee of many gods. In his shipwreck and survival he is finally able to answer the big questions he has asked all his life. The movie becomes a parable, and I dare say no audience has ever seen a more visually compelling argument.

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey IMAX 3D ***

In this first film of the prequel to "Lord of the Rings" a younger Bilbo Baggins is challenged by Gandalf to join him and a band of Dwarves, including their king, on a quest to reclaim their homeland from a fearsome dragon. Eventually they set off, and meet with many perils and adventures along the way.

What I liked: the time spent in realizing and exploring each world and its inhabitants, when it didn't turn into pointless stuffing to fill up nearly 3 hours. Some sequences, like the battling rock monsters, a riddle over the line with Gollum, and a bridge too far with the trolls, seemed just overblown asides in Peter Jackson's mission to make another trilogy out of a slight and delightful original book.

Costumes, set decoration, special effects, and music were all superb. I was happy to see a new generation of IMAX 3D glasses that are more substantial and that hopefully will stand up to cleaning, instead of buckling and spotting the lenses. If you're a fan of the LOTR series, then by all means go see it, but of course you've already seen it, haven't you?

Lincoln *****

One of the very best films of 2012 and a new high point in historical movie-making, "Lincoln" focuses on the last tumultuous months of the 16th President's time in office, when he struggled to amend the Constitution to abolish slavery and bring an end to the Civil War in a manner that would restore the union. This is unvarnished history and politics, where low means are employed to bring about the very highest of ends, and men of principle may tell less than the whole truth if that half truth will help set men free.

Parallels with our own times are rife, although it would be a mistake to draw only topical references from a project so meticulously researched and in development for almost 10 years. Tony Kushner, who won the Pulitzer Prize for "Angels in America," has constructed a towering screenplay, largely based on Doris Kearns Goodwin's Lincoln biography, "Team of Rivals." Steven Spielberg has assembled the very best talent to write, produce, and portray this story, perhaps most importantly Daniel Day-Lewis to play Lincoln, whose Oscar for this performance is already conventional wisdom.                                                                              

Day-Lewis's Lincoln is not your theme-park president. His Lincoln has a high-pitched voice (which carried farther than Douglas' in their famous debates) and a combination of warmth and reserve that sometimes seems odd, but oddly right for the character. Sally Fields captures the emotional and high-strung Mary, torn in so many directions and still grieving for her lost son. Tommy Lee Jones, one of many superb supporting players, brings the firebrand Thaddeus Stevens to life in his struggle to rid the union of the stain of slavery.

"Lincoln" is rich and rewarding, and one movie I would happily see again.